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Perfect rigor : a genius and the mathematical breakthrough of the century

In 2006, eccentric Russian mathematician Grigori Perelman solved one of the world's greatest intellectual puzzles. For this feat, Perelman will be awarded a prize of one million dollars, and he will likely decline it. Gessen investigates his gripping yet tragic story of genius.

A problem for a million dollars --
Escape into the imagination --
How to make a mathematician --
A beautiful school --
A perfect score --
Rules for adulthood --
Guardian angels --
Round trip --
The Problem --
The proof emerges --
The madness --
The million-dollar question.

Abstract:

In 2006, eccentric Russian mathematician Grigori Perelman solved one of the world's greatest intellectual puzzles. For this feat, Perelman will be awarded a prize of one million dollars, and he will likely decline it. Gessen investigates his gripping yet tragic story of genius.

Well-told tale of cutting-edge math

Dateline 2013: Gessen creates a compelling narrative as she guides the lay reader skillfully through the world of Russian society and the eccentric genius of Grigori Perelman, the man who proved the Poincare conjecture.

Dateline 2013: Gessen creates a compelling narrative as she guides the lay reader skillfully through the world of Russian society and the eccentric genius of Grigori Perelman, the man who proved the Poincare conjecture.

Part of what makes Perelman's story interesting is the way in which he fits the mold of a Romantic genius, Romantic here meaning the philosophical and literary movement that began in the early 19th century. He is uncompromising and never politic. He is deeply insulted if one suspects him of having ulterior motives. He demands complete respect from people who do not know him. In this way, he ignores the fact that the world is full of people who claim to have accomplished things they have not. Because of the way of the world, institutions have checks to force people to prove themselves, even if such proof is demeaning. To be given high social esteem, one must often submit to a lengthy process of paying ones dues, which Perelman has refused to do.

When a person is great and brooks no petty accommodation to human society, the person inspires loyalty. In terms of evolutionary psychology, acting strategically can be a bad long-term strategy, because others recognize ones ulterior motives to get ahead socially. The admiration of mad genius is similar to the rational, game-theoretical success of irrational behavior. Within Perelman's own world, his actions have a logical consistency and dignity, but in the broader context, they are irrational. But in many situations, such irrational behavior succeeds.

The most heavily "liked" review of this book on Amazon slams Gessen's efforts to diagnose Perelman with a mental condition. The reviewer's point: Perelman simply has high standards, not a disease. But that reviewer overlooks the fact that such uncompromising principle is apocalyptic in nature: it is done without regard for how it sets up ones future relations with other people, as if there were no tomorrow. Perelman is like an religious prophet: rigorous to the point of being suicidal. And he is more like an Old Testament prophet: he is unforgiving. Because representatives from Princeton once insulted him by offering him only an untenured position, he refuses to consider their later offer of a tenured position. Take that, Princeton.

I think most people would consider Perelman's uncompromising state to be a madness, however much they might see it as a divine madness. We respect someone such as Lincoln or Roosevelt who can hold onto greater principles all the while playing the political game successfully, but we worship someone who did not play the game and was nailed up on a cross.

Gessen fulfills one aspect of the broader social recognition of the genius. She tells his story for him. And that task she has accomplished fully. Her final chapter, in which she points out that Perelman's behavior generally conforms to asperger syndrome, offends some readers, because it offers a rational explanation for his otherwise uncompromising purity, because it disturbs the Romantic narrative arc in which Perelman is "in the world" but not "of the world." By diagnosing him, Gessen returns his behavior to being "of the world." But even the asperger or autistic diagnosis today is celebrated as a Romantic type in contemporary culture.